Running the PostgreSQL
interactive terminal program, called psql, which allows you to
interactively enter, edit, and execute SQL commands.

Using an existing graphical frontend tool like
PgAccess or an office suite
with ODBC support to
create and manipulate a database. These possibilities are not
covered in this tutorial.

Writing a custom application, using one of the several
available language bindings. These possibilities are
discussed further in Part
IV.

You probably want to start up psql,
to try out the examples in this tutorial. It can be activated for
the mydb database by typing the
command:

$psql mydb

If you leave off the database name then it will default to
your user account name. You already discovered this scheme in the
previous section.

In psql, you will be greeted with the
following message:

Welcome to psql 8.0.26, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.
Type: \copyright for distribution terms
\h for help with SQL commands
\? for help with psql commands
\g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
\q to quit
mydb=>

The last line could also
be

mydb=#

That would mean you are a database superuser, which is most
likely the case if you installed PostgreSQL yourself. Being a superuser means
that you are not subject to access controls. For the purpose of
this tutorial this is not of importance.

If you encounter problems starting psql then go back to the previous section. The
diagnostics of createdb and psql are similar, and if the former worked the
latter should work as well.

The last line printed out by psql is
the prompt, and it indicates that psql
is listening to you and that you can type SQL queries into a work space maintained by
psql. Try out these commands:

The psql program has a number of
internal commands that are not SQL commands. They begin with the
backslash character, "\". Some of these commands were listed in
the welcome message. For example, you can get help on the syntax
of various PostgreSQLSQL commands by typing:

mydb=>\h

To get out of psql, type

mydb=>\q

and psql will quit and return you to
your command shell. (For more internal commands, type \? at the psql prompt.)
The full capabilities of psql are
documented in psql. If PostgreSQL is installed correctly you can
also type man psql at the operating
system shell prompt to see the documentation. In this tutorial we
will not use these features explicitly, but you can use them
yourself when you see fit.

To get the column names in their "natural" order (as in, the order they were created), use:SELECT column_name FROM information_schema.columns WHERE table_name ='&lt;table&gt;' ORDER BY ordinal_position;